Officially opened by Dr TY Phommasack, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and His ExcellencyMr François Sennemaud, Ambassador of France in Laos , a regional workshop to create the Conservation Agriculture Network in South-East Asia (CANSEA) was organised in Vientiane (Laos) in the premises of the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry, on 29-30 September 2009.

About 42 participants attended the workshop and participated in the presentation and debates.

The major objective of the workshop was to officially launch the Conservation Agriculture Network in South-East Asia. This regional network of research for development is a new structuring organization which creates a partnership between 7 research institutions from 6 South-East Asia countries. These 7 network founding members are the following: the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fishing of Cambodia, the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research & Development (IAARD) of Indonesia, The Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Agricultural Environment and Resources Institute (YAAS) of China, the National Agricultural & Forestry research Institute (NAFRI) of Laos, the Kasetsart University of Thailand and the Northern Mountainous Agriculture & Forestry Science Institute (NOMAFSI), and the Soils & Fertilizers Research Institute (SFRI) of Vietnam. The Centre de Coopération International en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) which is cooperating with all the other partners is also a founding member of the Network.

The network is managed by a steering committee which will be chaired for the next two years by the NAFRI (Laos). Mr Soulivanthong Kingkeo has been nominated as Chairperson of the steering committee. CIRAD was entrusted with the network coordination and Mr Jean-Claude Legoupil (Sector-based programme in Agroecology) has been nominated regional coordinator of the network. Synergy between members will lead to define several regional projects in Conservation Agriculture. These projects based on agroecology will associate rural development with nature and environment preservation. It is a new generic concept which integrates economically viable farming practices with sustainable management of natural resources.